Department Of Computer Science. Minutes Meeting of Industrial Liaison Board Date: 14 May 2014 Present: Guy Brown Lesley Brealey Joe Chacko Sam Chapman Fabio Ciravegna Richard Clayton Tony Cowling Michael Dimelow Marian Gheorghe Martin Gleadlow Stuart Green Christian Haggqvist Jim Hardisty Mike Holcombe Rob Iball Andrew Lowe Steve Maddock Roger Moore Chris Murray Andrea Povah Kathryn Roden Lucia Specia Charlotte Swain Guy Brown Lesley Brealey Joe Chacko Sam Chapman Fabio Ciravegna Apologies Rik Barker (Technophobia), John Brown (Ask4), Linus Cash (Student Representative), Mandy Chessell (IBM), Jon Collett (IBM), Matt Dudbridge (State Street Global Markets), Simon Fisher (IBM), David Forrester (Lightwork Design), Anthony Fretwell-Downing (Fretwell Downing Group), Vita Lanfranchi (K-Now), Gemma Minish (Thales), Helen Oritis (BAML), Mark Shackleton (BT) [GJB] [LB] [JC] [SC] [FC] [RHC] [AJC] [MD] [MAG] [MG] [SG] [CH] [JH] [MRH] [RI] [AL] [SCM] [RKM] [CM] [AP] [KMR] [LS] [CS] [GJB] [LB] [JC] [SC] [FC] Head of Department ACRC IBM K-Now Chair of Industrial Liaison Projects Officer Accreditation and BCS contact ARM Director of Enterprise Computing Course Technophopia ZOO Digital Group (External Chair of Industrial Liaison) NETbuilder HP ACRC K-Now BAML Director of Teaching Placements Officer Genesys Business Manager BAML Minutes Lecturer Industry Liaison Manager - Sheffield Engineering Gateway Head of Department ACRC IBM K-Now Chairman of Industrial Liaison 1. Welcome and apologies Noted: SG welcomed the committee and acknowledged the apologies. 2. Minutes of last meeting Noted: It was agreed that the minutes of the last meeting were a fair and accurate record. 3. HoD Presentation Teaching: GJB reported that we are currently ranked 6th out of 100 in The Guardian league table and that we are 17th in the Complete University Guide. Graduate employment rates continue to be good with 95% in graduate level jobs or further education within 6 months of graduation. The undergraduate market continues to be volatile. Applications are up by 50% for 2014 entry. Interest in PGT courses has fallen but the department is investigating articulation agreements with overseas institutions. GJB asked the board members to ‘watch this space’ as we will probably have more to say next year. A new UG module on algorithms and data structures will start next academic year for first year students and we are involving epiGenesys more with our first and second year group projects. We are looking at a new MSc programme in Graphics/ Virtual Reality. The department currently offers Degrees with Employment Experience and from September 2014 we will also offer Year in Industry Degrees MD asked how we are scoping our new MSc and asked what comes out at the end of it. SCM replied that there has not been any industry input at the moment and that we have just looked at what is currently available in the UK. It won’t just be computer graphics it will be Computer Science with … MD stated that he is happy to give input into the degree and that it would be useful to get an idea of how it is structured. SCM replied that we have a new VC fellow whose research is in the field of simulation and that the aim is to bring more of his work into the degree programme over time. GJB said that the intention was to refine the programme over the next few years. Research: The department will get the Ref rating on the 18 December 2014. The outcome will affect the HEFCE research budget. The department has secured some successful research grants and also some industrial funding – the Department is always looking to get more industrial funding. There have been some high profile research projects hitting the news. Outreach: Headstart summer school for prospective students, Week long residential course. STEM Ambassador Scheme. Two year long programme for Y9 students from three local schools. The students attend a programme of classes run by the Department and are expected to act as ambassador’s at their local school (running assemblies and computer clubs). One school reported that 78 out of 198 students now want to take GCSE in computing and 50% of the students are girls. Estates: Pam liversidge Building (formally known as the Graduate Engineering School). Focus on taught postgraduate students. Links to the Department through Insigneo and SCentrRo. The Diamond (formally known as the New Engineering Building) for undergraduate teaching in the Faculty of Engineering. Building is well underway and will be ready by Sept 2015. Strategic review: GJB asked the board members if we are teaching what they want. The Department is keen to get input from the industrial members and GJB explained that we are thinking of changing the name to the Industrial Advisory Board as we would like the board to have more of an advisory role. SG thought it would be good to know that the function of the group is and what role industry can have to help. At the moment it is good to hear what is going on in the department but the board isn’t really proactive in helping the department improve and that it has more of a passive role. GJB suggested the board could meet twice a year and that items like the annual review of teaching successes could be shared. SG suggested using a feedback questionnaire to collect suggestions and thoughts of the role of the board. AJC thought it might be useful for the board members to have a background briefing document before completing any questionnaire so they can understand any possible constraints. SG said that the day is valuable to get up-to-date with what is happening in the department and that board members would need directed input for the questionnaire (ask questions like we are looking at an MSc in … what do you think? This is better than us asking an open ended question). The board members would also need to be asked about directed and specific matters rather than generic matters. AL suggested that as there is such a broad range of members it would be useful for them all to know what we are teaching and where students want to go after their studies. MG added that it would be useful to have the sectors and job titles of where we expect our students to go. 4. Presentations Mike Holcombe: Advanced Computing Research Centre (ACRC) Based on the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) Three research themes: Big Data, Simulation and Software Testing. HEFCE have funded the first three years and it has been set up to help bridge the gap between research and industry. The ACRC are setting up an Industry Group which will be separate from the ILB. Rob Iball: K-Now Spin out company from the University of Sheffield. Try and commercialise some of the research coming out of the department. Look at crowd behaviour and event management. Offer Internships to students. Helen Thorpe: Work Experience and Year in Industry Careers service advertises placements to students. Students apply for a year in industry in their penultimate year and the placement can be in the UK or overseas. Value of a placement year is that it encourages students to become more employable and they are more focused when they come back. Students also get paid during their year out. The careers service wants to maximise industry links and there is an Engineering Careers Fair in June. Keen to encourage students to get work experience. Students are still applying for placements so it isn’t too late to advertise. 5. Best Poster Best Video: £50 Amazon voucher sponsored by the Department. Winner: Luke Heavens (3D Portraiture System) Most Innovative: £150 prize sponsored by The Floow. Winner: Tarlan Sulymanov (Animating ‘Zeno’ the RoboKind Humanoid Robot: Navigation in a Mobile Environment) Best Poster: Nexus Tablet sponsored by IBM. Winner: Adam Boorman (Sensor Based Mobile Application For Citizen Science) Most Enthusiastic (runner up prizes): Sifa Senday (aMask: Kinect based software for virtual facial substitution and decoration) and Amy Nicholson (The TWITTERATI - Text Sentiment Analysis of Twitter Data). Noted: MD commented that he felt there was far too much detail on the posters and that more work could be done on the poster structure.